Abstract

Grupo Bimbo (Bimbo) was a leading global baker and a market leader in Mexico. Since its inception, Bimbo had been in the forefront in innovating and introducing new kinds of baked food products in the Mexican market and tailor-made food products in the global market. Bimbo offered various food products under different brand names. It had a strong brand portfolio of around 100 brands, offering more than 10,000 food items. Bimbo was the first Latin American baking company to expand into the global markets. It operated in Europe, Central America, South America, North America, Canada, and China. Bimbo had a strong market presence and a strong brand value in Mexico and across the globe. However, despite being a leading global baker, Bimbo had a market share of only 4% in the global baking industry and was facing a challenge in expanding into the Chinese market. The present case study focuses on Bimbo’s strategies, vision, and mission, how it established itself in Mexico, and transformed itself into a global company, the challenges and opportunities it faced, and how the management was able to overcome the challenges and capitalize on the opportunities to turn Bimbo into one of the leading baking companies in the world.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• To identify the different modes of expansion used by Bimbo for international expansion
• To analyze Bimbo’s international businesses
• To understand the impact of culture and food habits on the baking industry.

Keywords

Grupo Bimbo, Baking Industry, Mexico, Global Latinos, Globalization